Read/read/reading: Kraken by China Miéville, Palo Alto by James Franco, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Kraken: This was strange, and not as good as Miéville’s straighter fantasy stuff (Perdido Street Station was the last of his I read, and that was magnificent), but still an exhilarating read. Miéville constructs worlds better than any other writer I know, and this continued that trend. Where this occasionally fell down for me is the reverent eye it attaches to London (in a way that, say, The Book of Dave by Will Self doesn’t), but the beauty is in the grotesque characterisation and odd events, which unfold more like a drug-addled nightmare than a narrative. Miéville, to me, has always felt like Hunter S. Thompson if he wrote fantasy novels - that same acerbic wit and savage sensibility translates perfectly, only this has an adrenaline shot of imagination to boot.

Palo Alto: Quick read, and occasionally felt a little like James Franco was jerking off on your face, but there were a lot of high points - there’s talent there, even if it feels a little unrefined. He’s constructed a cast of characters who feel young and nihilistic, but in an anti-Bret Easton Ellis twist, you end up caring for a lot of them. There are a lot of fucked up moments, but they pull you in rather than push you out.

I’ve heard good things about Extremely Loud, though not the movie - we’ll see. Reading is fun!